MOAT vs VYM

MOATCVanEck Morningstar Wide Moat ETF

VYMAVanguard High Dividend Yield ETF

In short

MOAT Analyst judgment, not just a formula. MOAT holds about 60 US companies that Morningstar's equity research flags as having durable competitive advantages, and it only buys the ones the research also calls attractively priced.

VYM The no-frills dividend workhorse. VYM buys the higher-yielding end of the US market, roughly 600 names, for four basis points: no quality screen, no dividend-growth-streak test, just yield, at scale since 2006.

Stated mandate

MOAT MOAT seeks to replicate the price and yield performance of the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index, which targets attractively priced companies with sustainable competitive advantages identified through Morningstar equity research.

VYM The Fund seeks to track a benchmark index measuring the investment return of common stocks from companies characterized by high dividend yields.

Why people hold it

• MOAT Two gates, not one: a company needs a sustainable competitive advantage from Morningstar's research and an attractive price. Quality alone doesn't earn a slot.
• Running since 2012 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, so the strategy has been through several full market cycles with real money behind it.
• Actively traded and among the easier funds in its multifactor peer group to move in and out of at tight spreads.
• Sticks to its stated job: a US equity index fund built on the quality-plus-value screen it advertises, sitting in the upper half of a 100-plus fund cohort.

• VYM Four basis points a year, against a peer-group median near 0.32%. Cheaper than cohort neighbors VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%).
• Running since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so ordinary orders tend to fill at tight spreads.
• Simple mandate: track the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index of US common stocks screened on yield. No manager discretion, no options overlay, plain 1940-Act fund.vanguard.com
• Pays quarterly, and among 100-plus value and multifactor rivals it stands as one of the strongest overall packages in the group.

Worth knowing

• MOAT 0.46% a year is real money next to plain value beta: VONV charges 0.06% and VYM 0.04%. Analyst-driven research carries a price tag.
• About 60 names, chosen on valuation. That is a portfolio built to look different from the broad market, in both directions.
• Distributions come annually or semiannually, so it isn't built as a regular income stream.

• VYM The screen is yield, not payout growth or dividend quality, so a company can qualify simply because its share price fell.
• This is a value slice by design, tilted to established payers, so it behaves differently from a total US market fund.
• Roughly 600 holdings, but weight leans toward the largest payers, so the top of the roster does more of the work than the count suggests.

Full MOAT profile⁠

Full VYM profile⁠